It’s almost Halloween, the day most people wear silly costumes to work, hardly work, then eat too much at the office potluck. But the spooky monsters, screeching ghosts and wicked witches got us thinking–what are salespeople most afraid of? What stops them from achieving their sales goals?
We asked Super Niche Event speaker and sales genius Christopher Ware to share his thoughts on how salespeople can overcome obstacles –and help their advertisers overcome their own road blocks at the same time.
Every salesperson faces the big one–rejection. What are some good ways to overcome it?
We are in the business of being told no – and that’s something you never really get used to. It’s one of the hardest things about this career.
So I don’t know that you ever overcome it. But you do find ways to adapt to it.
Here’s how I look at it: Every encounter with a prospect is a learning opportunity. I may not have closed the deal, but if I learned something from the encounter, it wasn’t a failure. I mentally record lessons learned and store that up for next time. The more interactions with prospects, the more information I gather. And ultimately the better I get at my job.
Are there other parts of the job that sometimes stop salespeople cold?
I think the biggest hurdle salespeople have is they never get over the idea that they are bothering people. You aren’t. You have a product that will make their life better in some way. So you are doing them a favor by contacting them.
One place that a lot of salespeople go wrong is they call once, maybe send an email, and then they stop. It takes 8-12 contacts for most prospects to become customers. A lot of people give up after contact 2 or 3.
What do you think advertisers/sponsors are most afraid of and how do you help them overcome it?
Most people don’t like trying something new. They are afraid of failure. The best way to deal with that is to have a list of success stories ready to share. Show your prospect that your advertisers have seen success. If they have, the prospect will too. It takes the fear and uncertainty out of it.
Editor’s note: Christopher will be speaking on sales success tactics at the Super Niche Event in Nashville, March 18-20, 2019.
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More about Christopher: Christopher is the founder of Sales Tonic Media, a consulting and training firm specializing in growing niche media revenues. His day job is Vice President of Business Development for NAIOP, a national trade association for real estate developers. At NAIOP he’s doubled revenue since the end of the Great Recession, doubled conference sponsorship sales, more than tripled the number of companies sponsoring, and tripled digital advertising sales. But he’s best known for giving away free burritos to get his calls returned.
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